Some embodiments described herein relate generally to methods and apparatus for remote management of an optical transceiver. In particular, but not by way of limitation, some embodiments described herein relate to methods and apparatus for remote management of an optical transceiver via an embedded communication channel (ECC).
Optical transceivers used in WDM systems transmit and receive data by combining a number of different optical channels or signals at different wavelengths onto a single optical fiber or a set of optical fibers. Each wavelength can be associated with a different WDM channel. Light for these WDM channels can be modulated to produce optical signals at different wavelengths to carry data separately.
In an optical network with a number of optical transceivers, each optical transceiver can have its status monitored and troubleshooting can be performed when an optical transceiver fails. Known methods typically provide information regarding the health of an optical transceiver locally. In other words, operational status of a given optical transceiver, such as loss of light, receiving optical power, and faults, are only available at such optical transceiver. Other known methods that use test equipment to examine the operational status of optical transceivers typically involve interrupting the connection to the optical transceivers to retrieve such information.
Accordingly, a need exists for methods and apparatus to remotely monitor and control an optical transceiver in an optical network without local interruption.